Mass Effect 2 (Xbox 360) Preview

Posted by Jon Seddon on 09.03.2009

Hands on with one of the games of the show at the recent Gamescom



The chance to play Mass Effect 2 was high on my to-do list for Gamescom, but not because I'd played the first game, more because of the enthusiastic talk of podcasters. When I sat down with the game, it was my first experience of the Mass Effect universe, so my knowledge of the characters and back story was very limited. The demo however, was so good that I've since started playing the original, both to give me a reference point and to prepare me for February next year when Mass Effect 2 is due to ship.



The demo I played was a combat intense sequence bookended by two cut scenes and some dialogue. I think that Bioware set this demo up to showcase the combat, as the guy I was speaking to wanted feedback on this element of the game more than any other aspect. I completely missed any story from the first cut scene as initially I didn't have audio. What was immediately obviously though was the quality of the graphics in both the dialogue and cut scenes, with the character models and facial animations amongst the best I've seen in any game. I compared this to the original afterwards and can confirm a considerable improvement in this area. The first game has a grainy filter, which I find distracting, whilst the sequel is beautifully lit and pin sharp.

My squad and I were then dropped into the combat, which consisted of getting from one end of a "corridor" to the other, with the usual cover items from any 3rd person shooter. Graphically, again the game was impressive, but what impressed me more were the controls. Having never played the first game, I took to it like a duck to water and was instantly making full use of the stop and pop game play. You can both snap to cover and slide to cover, which just seemed natural, but when compared to the first game is a league better. If you remember combat was marginally hampered by the floaty imprecise feeling and the vague cover mechanics first time round, but not anymore. Aiming and shooting felt good and the two weapons I tried both felt satisfying. The assault rife was "just good enough" in the way that assault rifles are your general go to gun. The rocket launcher however just felt totally spot on with really enjoyable bangs, especially when used against armored turrets. This time when you aim squarely at the target, you hit the target. Whether the dice rolling in the background means that in reality that hit didn't count, you still get the feeling that you are a badass special agent.

I can't talk about the squad mechanics, because I honestly forgot they were there, because I was having too much fun. I think my sqaud must have been there though, as I wasn't on my own in the final scene!



Once I had fought my way to the room at the end, the final set of dialogue choices played out, but before the talking had finished an assassin appeared and took out the alien I was trying to question. That was unfortunately was the end of this demo.

From the short play time, it's impossible to know whether Bioware have addressed all the issues from the first game, but from a graphical and shooting point of view its job done. When questioned, they told me that they had addressed loading times and the environments are also much more detailed and varied making the side quests a little more interesting. I for one can't wait to find out.

Screenshots
All 8 Mass Effect 2 Screenshots